This invention relates generally to lifting and transport apparatus and relates, more particularly, to an apparatus intended for lifting and transporting a toilet.
When installing a new toilet in place, re-installing an old toilet or in order to work in a bathroom, it is necessary to pick up and move the toilet from one site to another site. Of course, the lifting and moving of a toilet is frequently a difficult operation because the shape of a toilet renders it difficult to grasp, and most toilets are relatively heavy.
Various apparatus are known which can be used for lifting and moving a toilet. Examples of such apparatus, such as are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,752,379 and 4,722,511, include a wheeled frame which can be rolled into place beneath a toilet and lifting mechanisms which can be raised to lift the toilet from the floor. Once lifted from the floor, the toilet is rolled across the floor by way of the wheeled frame to another location. To replace a toilet—once supported by the wheeled frame in a raised condition, the frame is repositioned at the site at which the toilet is desired to be located, and the lifting mechanisms are lowered to re-position the toilet in place.
Apparatus such as those described in the aforementioned patents are limited in that each is relatively cumbersome to use or requires a great deal of time to use. It would be desirable to provide a relatively uncomplicated apparatus for lifting and moving a toilet which can be used to quickly raise or lower a toilet relative to the underlying floor and to transport a raised toilet across the floor.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved apparatus for raising or lowering a toilet from a floor and for moving the toilet across the floor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which can be used to raise or lower a toilet relatively quickly.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which can be used with relative ease.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such apparatus which reduces the likelihood that a toilet being lifted and/or transported with the dolly will be damaged by the dolly during a lifting or transporting operation.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which can be used as a dolly in one, or substantially horizontal, orientation for raising and transporting a toilet and which can be used as a dolly in another, or substantially vertical, orientation.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus which is uncomplicated in structure, yet effective in operation.